Jessica Bowyer

PhD Researcher in Education (ESRC +3)
Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter

Start date: September 2016

Research topic: Closing the attainment gap in rural and coastal schools

The attainment gap between disadvantaged students and their peers is persistent. Recent research suggests that the gap is largest in rural and coastal schools. My research explores the attainment gap from three perspectives:

Secondary analysis of the National Pupil Database;

The use of Pupil Premium funding in secondary schools in the South West and the strategies schools employ to the close the attainment gap;

The ways in which students in rural and coastal areas construct and mediate their identities as learners and young people, drawing on hybridised theories of identity, rooted in the the work of Bauman and Bourdieu.